KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 28 ― Malaysia’s total trade performance in September 2021 expanded by 25.5 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM195.5 billion as the country’s exports and imports recorded strong double-digit growth, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).

In a statement today, chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidinwith said exports reached a new high of RM110.8 billion, expanding by 24.7 per cent as compared to the previous year.

Imports also registered an increase of 26.5 per cent to RM84.7 billion y-o-y, as reported today in the Malaysia External Trade Statistics Bulletin, September 2021.

Mohd Uzir said growth in exports was supported by both domestic exports and re-exports.

"This was the 13th consecutive month of y-o-y expansion since September 2020.

"Domestic exports amounted to RM87.7 billion and contributed 79.1 per cent to total exports, expanded by 22.4 per cent,” he said.

On the same note, re-exports, with a value of RM23.2 billion, grew by 34.1 per cent y-o-y.

"Trade surplus expanded by 19.1 per cent to RM26.1 billion.

"Along with the recovery in domestic economic activity due to the implementation of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) in June 2021, the month-on-month performance of exports, imports, total trade, and trade surplus also showed sturdy growth of 16, 14.2, 15.2, and 22.2 per cent, respectively,” he said

In conjunction with the annual growth, Mohd Uzir said 168 out of 254 commodity groups for exports showed increases as compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, 147 out of 260 groups posted positive growth for imports, he said.

DoSM also reported that the rise in exports was attributable mainly to the higher exports to Singapore (+RM4.0 billion) followed by China (+RM3.0 billion), the United States (+RM2.0 billion), Indonesia (+RM1.7 billion), India (+RM1.4 billion), Hong Kong (+RM1.1 billion), and Japan (+RM879.4 million).

It said China continued to be the major contributor to the increase in imports (+RM4.6 billion), followed by Singapore (+RM2.1 billion), the European Union (+RM1.9 billion), Indonesia (+RM1.6 billion), Taiwan (+RM1.5 billion), the United States (+RM1.0 billion) and South Korea (+RM930.7 million).

"The expansion in exports was driven by petroleum products (+RM5.6 billion); manufacture of metal (+RM3.6 billion); palm oil & palm oil-based agriculture products (+RM2.8 billion); electrical & electronic products (+RM2.2 billion); chemical & chemical products (+RM1.7 billion); palm oil-based manufactured products (+RM1.2 billion); iron & steel products (+RM1.1 billion) and liquefied natural gas (+RM1.1 billion).

"The rise in imports was noted for electrical & electronic products (+RM6.4 billion); petroleum products (+RM4.0 billion); chemical & chemical products (+RM2.1 billion) and crude petroleum (+RM755.1 million),” it said.

On the same note, the department said expansion in imports by End Use sustained by higher demand primarily for intermediate goods, capital goods and consumption goods.

It said imports of intermediate goods (51 per cent of the total imports) totalled RM43.2 billion, increasing by RM9.9 billion or 29.7 per cent.

"Capital goods (10.8 per cent of total imports) registered an increase of 20.3 per cent from RM7.6 billion in the preceding year to RM9.2 billion.

"Imports of consumption goods, which amounted to RM6.9 billion, rose by 3.7 per cent as compared to September 2020, and comprised 8.1 per cent of total imports,” it added. ― Bernama